Monday, December 3, 2012

Excellent opinion piece in today's Saudi Gazette (originally in Al-Jazira) by Dr. Thurayyah Al-Aredh. A link to the story is here, and the text is pasted below. by Dr. Thurayyah Al-Aredh

THE other evening we were invited to a party in Bahrain by a Saudi
friend who shuttles between both countries. When we arrived at the
venue, our host was not there to receive us. After a long wait he
arrived visibly worried and upset.

He explained to us that the foreign driver who was driving his wife and
kids was apprehended by the Saudi authorities on King Fahd Causeway for
trying to smuggle some bottles of whisky. He said he had to go to the
causeway to drive his family back home.

I have to admit that this is not the first time I hear about the arrest
of a family driver on the causeway for smuggling of liquor. Personally I
have been without a driver for about a whole year now after we have
decided not to bring back our Filipino driver because of his numerous
violations and stealing of our household goods.

My husband and my son are working in Riyadh. We are away from each other
but I am certain that living away from the family is somewhat easier
than living without a car.

The sad side of the story is that I am a holder of a driving license
which I acquired while I was a university student abroad. I have not
been able to use this driving license since I returned home.

Three decades have passed with me waiting hopelessly for the Interior
Ministry to reach a decision allowing women to drive. Such a decision
will rid us of the need to employ foreign drivers and live under their
mercy. Women driving cars is not a fashion trend or an ostentatious
phenomenon but a real and pressing need.

The faltering relationship between the importers of workers and the
foreign manpower themselves has its adverse effects deepening the
tension in our families and homes. The two sides have been exchanging
accusations that included lies and distorted facts. These accusations
culminate in defamation and financial loss.

Foreign manpower has been accused of all vices including child abuse,
physical violence, sorcery, brewing and smuggling of alcohol and murder.
On their part, the foreign workers have been accusing their sponsors of
exploiting them, not paying their salaries and even physically abusing
them.

I often ask myself: What makes us import foreign house helps? Can’t we
ever do without them? Are there no solutions except for recruitment with
all its evils?

It is quite justifiable to import foreign manpower to work in the
advanced technological fields but to bring them to work in our homes and
live among our families is not understandable. We should seek alternate
solutions to our needs other than recruitment.

The importing of drivers has become more perilous than the recruitment
of housemaids. As soon as the drivers know our streets, they will not
fail to find those who will give them all kinds of criminal advice.

Time has come to get rid of the millions of the foreign drivers in our
country. Let the Saudi women drive and the problem will be solved
forever. By driving our own cars we will save a lot of resources for the
economy. We will be a lot safer as well and will sleep in peace and
security.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Columnist Tariq A. Al Maeena writes an interesting op-ed in the Gulf News - a water conservation justification for changing the law in Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive. The story is pasted below and a link to it is here.

By Tariq A. Al Maeena - December 1, 2012 - Jeddah -

By giving women the right to drive, Saudi
Arabia can conserve water consumed by the approximately million
expatriate drivers and reduce the skyrocketing costs of desalination

Image Credit: Luis Vazquez

The UAE has become a magnet for the rest of the Gulf Cooperation
Council states. Tourists have been flocking in by the hundreds of
thousands. The bulk of the visitors from the Arabian peninsula in recent
times have been from Saudi Arabia. And they don’t just visit only once.
Families make the bulk of visitors, but there are also a sizeable
number of single males and females who venture to the UAE on their own.

What is it that attracts these visitors from a nearby country? It is
certainly not the weather as there are no significant climatic
differences between the two countries. Nor is there a dramatic change in
topography that may induce some to visit. Shops and restaurants are not
much different in both countries. Yet in the balance of travel,
visitors from the Saudi side most likely outnumber their UAE
counterparts by 10 to 1.

There are significant reasons then that would attract someone to make
the trip from Saudi Arabia to the UAE. The first is that they find the
UAE more similar than different from their own culture. And besides a
host of other reasons such as world class entertainment, there is the
compelling draw of a country that places no unjustified restrictions on
its women.

Suzanne, a resident of Jeddah, offers her own perspective on the
matter: “It’s all about personal freedom. The UAE is an Islamic country
which follows a similar code as in Saudi Arabia, yet allows women
choices that we find denied here. And the number one irritant and
nuisance to all women here is not allowing them to drive their own cars.
Perhaps we can attempt to get a discussion going in the Majlis Al Shura
pertaining to this matter by using a different logic; perhaps the
argument of conservation?”

Doing the math

She continued: “The fastest and least expensive way to conserve water
and other resources in Saudi Arabia and save some of our outbound
tourist dollars would be to allow women to drive! Where is the
connection? Allow me to give an explanation in a very rough estimate of
figures: If women were given the right to drive, approximately a million
drivers could eventually be sent back to their home countries. Each one
of these men consumes about 300 litres of water a day, (about one-third
cubic metres). That’s 300 million litres per day for a million drivers.
That’s 90 billion litres per year, with allowances made for their
vacation time. That’s 90 million cubic metres per year of water consumed
by drivers alone.

“The desalination plant in Saudi Arabia produces 1 million cubic metres
of water per day. That’s 365 million cubic metres a year. If we had a
million less drivers we would only need 275 million cubic metres. The
Shuaiba desalination plant would thus have 25 per cent surplus water for
people to use if women could drive their own cars. Double check the
math.

“The same approximate figures would hold true for electricity
consumption. Even if drivers were to be slowly phased out, this would
amount to an enormous saving for the country in terms of water, energy,
and of course finances as well. The employment of drivers is becoming an
increasing financial burden.

“Some women’s salaries are spent solely on a driver’s expenses. Should
women then not receive government subsidies for each household, as
compensation for the expenses of having to pay recruiting agencies,
visas, air fare, medical check- ups, driver’s licences, traffic tickets,
extra living quarters, furniture, insurance, meals, medical bills and
medication, and of course water and electricity etc., in addition to
drivers’ salaries?

“What a huge financial burden for a country with a shrinking middle
class, and with minimum wages not much higher than that paid to a driver
brought in from a developing country, many of whom have never driven a
car before coming to work in Saudi Arabia. That brings up the safety
issue as well: Safety on the road, safety allowing one’s children day in
and day out in the presence of a stranger.

“Which leads me to my next point. The burden of women being banned from
driving is also of a psychological and social nature. How has a
conservative society such as Saudi Arabia ever allowed itself to bring
total strangers into their homes, not knowing the slightest thing about
their past, or their moral conduct? It’s a mystery. The whole issue of
the ban on women driving is a mystery and a paradox. And you wonder why
we all escape to the UAE? Perhaps it’s because they have got it right!”

And thus Suzanne concludes her argument with such a novel defence. In
that she has chosen an original slant to a social issue of growing
concern is indicative that this issue will not simply go away. Nor will
those marginalised by social restrictions that confine and constrict
their personal development be silent forever. The blanket of traditions
and beliefs should be shed from the body of this issue.

It is then that perhaps we would become more in line with the UAE.

Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah

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About Me

I'm a freelance writer based in Maine. I lived in Saudi Arabia for many years. I studied Arabic in college eons ago and married my college sweetheart, a fellow Arabic student. My first novel, A CARAVAN OF BRIDES, is set in Saudi Arabia. I'm working on my second novel while writing feature stories about the Middle East. I am also the co-founder and Administrative Director of the Arabic Music Retreat.